The present application hereby incorporates the following United Stated States Patent Applications by reference in their entirety:
The present invention generally relates to the field of semiconductors and semiconductor design, and particularly to an architecture for a configurable platform including magnetoresistive memory.
Integrated circuits have become a necessary part of everyday modern society. From wireless phones and information handling systems, to household appliances and data storage systems, a wide range of integrated circuits are utilized to provide a broad range of functionality. To provide this functionality, integrated circuits may need to be specialized to have the functions necessary to achieve the desired results, such as through the provision of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). An ASIC is typically optimized for a given function set, thereby enabling the circuit to perform the functions in an optimized manner. However, there may be a wide variety of end-users desiring such targeted functionality, with each user desiring different functionality for different uses.
Additionally, more and more functions are being included within each integrated circuit. While providing a semiconductor device that includes a greater range of functions supported by the device, inclusion of this range further complicates the design and increases the complexity of the manufacturing process. Further, such targeted functionality may render the device suitable for a narrow range of consumers, thereby at least partially removing an xe2x80x9ceconomy of scalexe2x80x9d effect that may be realized by selling greater quantities of the device.
Thus, the application specific integrated circuit business is confronted by the contradiction that the costs of design and manufacture dictate high volumes of complex designs. Because of this, the number of companies fielding such custom designs is dwindling in the face of those rapidly escalating costs.
Further, there are limited options, previously, for storing state information on a platform device. In order to give the platform device state, a platform utilizes memory that may be written to and read from to configure a platform or groups of platforms.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a platform architecture of the present invention.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an architecture. In a first aspect of the present invention, a system for providing distributed functionality in an electronic environment includes a plurality of platforms suitable for providing a logic function. The platforms include embedded programmable logic and MRAM memory, the logic and MRAM memory communicatively coupled via an interconnect.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a data storage system includes an electronic data storage device suitable for the storage of electronic data, an MRAM memory operable for the storage of electronic data utilizing a magnetoresistive effect and a controller communicatively coupled to the data storage device and the MRAM memory. The controller is suitable for controlling operations of the data storage device, wherein the controller receives data for writing to the electronic data storage device, the data is stored utilizing the MRAM memory before writing to the electronic data storage device.
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.